U.S. leveraged loan funds recorded an inflow of $125.4 million in the week ended Aug. 17, according to the Lipper weekly reporters only. This is the third straight week of increasing inflows to the asset class, following last week’s $96.4 million and $60.4 million in the week prior.

The reading was 37% attributable to the ETF segment, up from 20% of last week’s reading.

The trailing four-week average rose to $66.7 million, from $52.6 million last week, amid the increasing inflow.

Year-to-date outflows from leveraged loan funds now total $5.11 billion, based on outflows of $5.9 billion from mutual funds against inflows of $779 million to ETFs, or inverse 15%, according to Lipper.

The change due to market conditions this past week was positive $40.2 million, a negligible change against total assets, which were $59.2 billion at the end of the observation period. ETFs represent about 11% of the total, at $6.6 billion. — Jon Hemingway

Irvine, Calif.-based loanDepot announced yesterday that it has received $150 million in term debt financing to back technology and product development and leverage its balance sheet to hold certain loan assets.

The non-bank consumer lender had planned to go public last November, but the IPO was postponed. At that time, loanDepot disclosed it had an $80 million unsecured term loan outstanding with pricing of 11–12.75%, $15 million in subordinated notes priced at 15%, a $30 million revolver backing working capital, and a $150 million secured credit facility that served as a warehouse line.

The company, launched in 2010, has 5,200 employees and operates eight business centers and more than 150 loan stores across the U.S. Parthenon Capital sponsors the business.

The company said today that its second-quarter fundings reached nearly $10 billion in home, personal, and home equity loans, up 16% compared to the same time last year. — Kelly Thompson

With technicals heating up in the European leveraged loan market, all-in spreads for new-issue single-B rated leveraged loans shrank to E+491 in July from E+563 in 2016’s second quarter, and from E+601 in the first quarter, according to LCD, an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Joint bookrunners Goldman Sachs, Citi, and MUFG have upsized Chesapeake Energy’s first-lien, last-out term loan to $1.5 billion, from $1 billion, and tightened pricing, according to market sources. Pricing was expected later today.

Price talk for the five-year loan is now L+750 with a 1% LIBOR floor, offered at par. Recall initial guidance including a spread range of L+750–775 and an OID of 99. The loan is non-callable for two years, with a first call at par plus 50% of the coupon, stepping to 25% and par.

Proceeds from the deal will be used to fund a tender offer for up to $500 million of the borrower’s outstanding bonds in terms of purchase price. The tender prioritizes the company’s shortest-dated bonds. It will redeem up to $400 million (purchase price) of its 6.35% euro senior notes due 2017, 6.5% senior notes due 2017, and 7.25% senior notes due 2018.

Up to $250 million will be spent on the second-priority floating-rate senior notes due 2019 and the third-priority notes, which comprise the following paper: 6.625% senior notes due 2020; 6.875% senior notes due 2020; 6.125% senior notes due 2021; 5.375% senior notes due 2021; 4.875% senior notes due 2022; and 5.75% senior notes due 2023.

The new debt will be secured against the same collateral that is tied to the company’s revolver. In case of default, payments to new term loan creditors will waterfall down after the revolver is repaid. The loan will carry an unconditional guarantee from Chesapeake’s directly and indirectly held wholly owned domestic subsidiaries, with the same guarantee in place for the revolving credit.

Loans gained 0.02% today after going unchanged on Friday, according to the LCD Daily Loan Index.
The S&P/LSTA US Leveraged Loan 100, which tracks the 100 largest loans in the broader Index, gained 0.04% today.

Chesapeake Energy has launched a $1 billion first lien, last-out loan to syndication. Goldman Sachs (left lead), Citi, and MUFG are joint bookrunners on the transaction.

The five-year deal is expected to price in the middle of this week, and the proceeds will be used to finance a tender offer for up to $500 million of the borrower’s outstanding bonds in terms of purchase price.

The new debt will be secured against the same collateral that the company’s revolver is tied to. In case of default, payments to new term loan creditors will waterfall down after the revolver is repaid. The loan will carry an unconditional guarantee from Chesapeake’s direct and indirectly held wholly-owned domestic subsidiaries, with the same guarantee in place for the revolving credit facility.

The tender prioritizes the company’s shortest-dated bonds. It will redeem up to $400 million (purchase price) of its 6.35% euro senior notes due 2017, 6.5% senior notes due 2017, and 7.25% senior notes due 2018.

Up to $250 million will be spent on the second priority floating-rate senior notes due 2019 and the third priority notes, which comprise the following paper: 6.625% senior notes due 2020; 6.875% senior notes due 2020; 6.125% senior notes due 2021; 5.375% senior notes due 2021; 4.875% senior notes due 2022; and 5.75% senior notes due 2023. The full tender announcement can be found here.

The new facility and tender offer follows better-than-expected second-quarter earnings from the energy firm, which pushed some of its outstanding debt higher on Aug. 4. As reported, the 8% second-lien exchange notes due 2022 jumped two points to start the session, at 93/93.5, and were later quoted at 92/93, with trades at 92. The 6.625% unsecured notes due 2020 traded as high as 80 following the results, versus 77 before publication, trade data show. — Rachel McGovern

KKR Capital Markets has scheduled a lender call for today at noon EDT to launch a $300 million of incremental facilities for Epicor. The financing includes a $225 million non-fungible first-lien term loan alongside a $75 million second-lien term loan that has been preplaced, according to sources.

As reported, KKR is leaving Epicor’s existing loans in place as it acquires the software concern from Apax Partners. A $2.11 billion financing arranged last year by Jefferies, Macquarie, and Nomura included pre-cap language that would allow the loans to remain in place following the sale to a qualified sponsor.

The 2015 dividend recapitalization included a $1.4 billion covenant-lite first-lien term loan due 2022 (L+375, 1% LIBOR floor), a $100 million revolver due 2020, and $610 million of privately placed second-lien loans. That transaction leveraged Epicor at 5.1x first-lien and roughly 7.3x total.

Epicor is a global provider of business software for the manufacturing, distribution, retail, and services industries. — Staff reports

This story first appeared onwww.lcdcomps.com, an offering ofS&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCDhere.